AIBU - Anxiety Is Bloody Unbearable

[UnaCorda]

Help. Please could you share anything that you've found effective, both short- and long-term? General sympathy and support also welcome...

So far I have tried:
Sertraline (amongst other ADs) - been taking 100mg for about eight years;
Psychotherapy - over a decade, including twice-weekly for a significant period;
CBT;
Diazepam - in extremis (I'm careful not to overdo it);
Rescue Remedy;
Yoga;
Breathing exercises.

I was in a fairly positive state but have recently been "triggered". Consequently have barely eaten since Wednesday and everything else has pretty much ground to a standstill as well.

I do have friends, but try not to lean on other people too much as I've found that a lot of people can't handle it and it adversely affects relationships. I tend to shut myself away and sleep a lot when it's at its worst, and I also feel a degree of shame for "failing" at life.

thecatsabsentcojones - could you tell us a bit about the Linden Method please?
Have not heard of it before and I'd love to be more on top of my anxiety.
Thanks

Read up on the connection between gut health and anxiety.
Get all your vitamin levels and hormones checked with an online blood test by a company like Thriva. Take targeted booster doses of supplements if low (a loading dose). Not just a general one a day multivitamin.
Eliminate sugar from your diet. Completely. This with optimum vitamin and hormone levels will make the most difference.
The person I knew who had the worse anxiety happened to take 4 sugars in tea and drank around 10 mugs per day. She could eat a whole tub of ice-cream or several chocolate bars in an evening. She was slim, but her anxiety was off the scale.
Eliminate people from your life who cause you stress.
Do anything you need to get a good night's sleep. Ear plugs, eye mask, melatonin, better mattress, cooler temperature.

The biggest thing for me has been exercise if you can get yourself going. I have gone from barely leaving the house in lockdown to aiming for a walk each day. I've now built this up to a combination of C25k, cycling and walking, plus some yoga/ballet at home.

Daily breathing has been good too, I prefer 3-4-5 breathing using the free Insight Timer app rather than a guided app like Headspace or Calm.

I suffered terribly from anxiety for about 15 years. It was up and down in terms of severity but at it worst crippled me. Started as GAD then changed to health anxiety then went back to GAD at the end. I tried a lot of thing (except medication) but the things that helped most were:-

• A very good counsellor. I saw her for 13 years and even just to have someone to offload to she was worth her weight in gold.
• Stopping smoking and drinking (I drink again now but needed to stop for a while I think as I was using it to self medicate)
• Getting good sleep (this mainly improved when my kids grew up a bit!) - this one is hugely important
• Dealing with acid reflux symptoms - definitely agree re the gut/brain connection. And acid reflux can be silent so don't discount it if you don't get the burning chest/throat
• Taking control of my life - cutting out unnecessary stress, getting organised, making sure I had time for myself
• Cutting out caffeine
• Not spending time on the internet looking up symptoms etc - basically stop thinking/talking about it all so much! Don't seek reassurance from others - it doesn't help it just makes it worse.

I think with anxiety you can get stuck in a viscious circle of worry/anxious feelings and half the time have no idea why you feel so jittery!

Sorry I also wanted to say don't feel like this is you forever. I don't get anxious at all any more. It just went away. But I had to work at it.

I'm so sorry that you're having such a crap time, OP. Anxiety is the worst - please don't feel you have failed at life when I've posted about this previously a kind Mumsnetter recommended this book and it was an interesting read and I found it helped:

Buy Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks by Barry McDonagh.

Light hearted distraction was useful too when I last had a really awful week - would recommend Father Ted, Miranda and the Windsors.

I hope you feel much better very soon.

That should just say Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks sorry

Another thing - if you can, exercise for at least twenty minutes a day (a good brisk walk or run or dancing). My GP told me that a minimum 20 min stretch burns off the adrenaline and will help with feeling better.

My anxiety is crap the moment too. Paranoid about Nazi's etc, feel like crying all the time. Exercise helps.

Prozac has always helped me.

Beta blockers when I’m having an anxiety attack that results in really bad physical symptoms.

I’ve had therapy in the past that really helped resolve a lot of my deeply held issues, but occasionally the anxiety completely takes over again. It is scary how uncontrollable it can be.

Does anyone else think there should be peer support groups for anxiety? Particularly since we're not all anxious at the same time, so could help others going through the worst?

@ollyandstacey

Does anyone else think there should be peer support groups for anxiety? Particularly since we're not all anxious at the same time, so could help others going through the worst?

Could work...